Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough were dashed as Kashmir’s prominent leader urged India and Pakistan to “break the ice and engage constructively”.
India’s foreign minister is scheduled to visit the neighboring country for the first time in nearly a decade to attend the 2024 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, but he has ruled out discussing bilateral relations with rival Pakistan.
Prime Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters on Saturday that he expected “a lot of media interest” in the possibility of speaking with the Pakistani side about bilateral relations during the two-day summit. Kashmir was ruled by India in 2019.
“But what I want to say is that it is a multilateral event. We are not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations,” he added.
“I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO, but I’m a polite and respectful person, so I’m going to act accordingly.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on Friday that Jaishankar will attend the October 15-16 summit, which India chaired last year, but whether he will meet the Pakistani leader during the observation. was not disclosed.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq urged India and Pakistan to “break the ice and engage constructively” (File: Dar Yassin/AP Photo)
Earlier this year, the foreign minister said India wanted to find a “solution to the long-standing problem of cross-border terrorism”, adding that it could not be a “good neighbor policy”.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting armed insurgents in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies. Pakistan insists it only provides political and moral support to so-called Kashmiri “freedom fighters.”
Pakistan has entered into negotiations with India after Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the limited autonomy granted to Kashmir in August 2019 as part of the aim of integrating the disputed territory into India. It downgraded diplomatic relations and suspended bilateral trade. Both India and Pakistan claim all of Kashmir, but have only ruled parts of it since independence from British colonial rule.
“A chance to break the ice”
Meanwhile, All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday said India and Pakistan have a “real opportunity to de-escalate and engage constructively” at the South African summit.
“Despite the growing challenges, our resolve to peacefully resolve the conflict remains stronger than ever. Kashmiris have been affected by uncertainty for generations. We want an end to this incident and just closure,” Farooq said in his first post about X in five years.
Farooq has been under house arrest for most of the past five years, along with many other pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders. APHC is campaigning for either a merger of the region with Muslim-majority Pakistan or the creation of an independent state from the Himalayan territory.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of Pakistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov of Uzbekistan, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar of India, Foreign Minister Murat Nurtlew of Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Qin Gang of China, Foreign Minister Jenbek Kurbayev of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister Shirozidin Aslov poses for a group photo ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting in Goa, India on May 5, 2023 (Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Associated Press)
The SCO is made up of 10 countries, including India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, and was established by Russia and China to deepen ties with Central Asian countries.
Michael Kugelman, director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, told Agence France-Presse AFP that India’s decision to attend the conference in Pakistan was based on “(a) desire to join Pakistan. “It was definitely motivated more by the commitment of South African countries.” Advancing relations with Pakistan.”
In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan, raising hopes for improved relations.
But the opposite happened in 2019 when Prime Minister Modi revoked constitutional guarantees given to Kashmir and downgraded the region to a union territory. Kashmiris claimed the move denied them their democratic right to elect their own representatives.
State elections concluded earlier this week, but analysts said the new parliament would have little power as all decisions would be made by the New Delhi-appointed lieutenant governor.
